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Thursday, July 28, 2011

So this morning I think I forgot my brain at home. I'm been on a huge coupon kick because my mom is really good at using them so I'm trying to learn and do the same to save some moolah. I got coupons in the mail for Bruegger's Bagels and one of them was a free bagel. I was pretty hungry this morning before work so I figured I could use it and knew of one right new work. So I pull up to the "Brueggers" and only realize after I have parked that I was walking into Einstein's bagels. Thank god I didn't try to use the coupon. Then, since I was already half way through the door I had to commit and go in. What a mess! Just gotta laugh at yourself sometimes.

Later today I learned that I will not be living in one of these this year.....

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That's right folks, I finally heard from the landlord and I have a place to live! This also means that I won't have to pack up my current house, move stuff into storage, then move it again. One move is a much better option!

In a "bettering myself" update, I had an early dinner last night because I figured I needed to pack and wanted to get a work out done. Well my sister called to invite me to dinner around 7 to see my niece so I went telling myself I wouldn't have to eat anything since I already did- how do you think that went??? I ended up eating like 3 pieces of pizza because it was right in front of me! This week is really stressful and it's hard to eat well when you're trying to get rid of all your food. Here's to next week being better!

Rant: It's really hard to say no to a steaming melty cheesy piece of pizza- even if it means you have to put more gym time to make up for it!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

So yesterday I was on Hulu to catch the latest episode of the Bachelorette(guilty pleasure 1) and happened to stumble upon my newest guilty pleasure show.......

Honestly I can't even begin to make up an excuse as to why I'm watching it, but I'm already on episode 4! It's the typical Abc Family show that sucks you in and before you know it, there's an hour of your life you can never get back, but I just can't stop watching!! This on top of Keeping up with the Kardashians and Dance Moms, my TV watching lately has really hit a low note. I need to find some better TV. Any suggestions??

Today during lunch I stopped at the liquor store to pick up so boxes so hopefully I'll be really making some progress tonight after the gym! Yesterday I managed to pack away about half of my clothes and take down one of my shelving units! Totally exhausting! It's going to be a loooong day of moving this weekend, especially because I don't know whether or not I'll be able to get in my new house by the time I need to be out of my current one. I just can't wait to move in and get settled and start to relax a little bit!!

Rant: Dragging my butt out of bed in the morning is hard enough, but how to some people just look perfect when I get into work, and I'm lucky I could run a brush through my hair?
Rave:I met a new friend at the gym yesterday! Starting to really enjoy myself there!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

So it's been a couple days since the last update, but this weekend was JAM-PACKED. One of my best friends from out of town came in to visit and we went to a wedding. I realized I'm not used to staying out late anymore and was dead the next day. Now that it's the last week in my house, I've been busy trying to pack away all my "stuff" while saying goodbye to all the memories this place holds. I think it will really sink in that I have graduated once I say goodbye to this place that meant so much to me in the last year. The memories I made and the people I met along the way won't be forgotten and I know that the friends I made will last a lifetime.

Ok done with the sap-tastic words today. I'm physically and mentally exhausted from all the packing, especially because I don't know my official move-in date for my next house. Therefore, I'm going to have to store all of my stuff (bed and all) somewhere until I can move in. Ughhh...this next week is going to be awful. I am proud though because I've made it to the gym at least 4 days a week so this whole making myself healthier and happier thing is going well! Last night I even did the dance class again and it was actually FUN! Once I got the moves down I got to put my own spin on it and had a good time- while burning calories! Woo Hoo! Haven't had a weigh in for awhile, but I'm sure it will happen when I go to my first personal training meeting on Friday!

For now I'm just going to try and stay calm and keep in mind that growing up, while it can be challenging and different, is natural and inevitable and I'm learning to embrace it. I'm pumped because Jon comes home from the beach this weekend and then it's his 25th birthday! I can't wait to celebrate!

Rant: Can't I just snap my fingers and all of my belongings will magically be in my new house?
Rave: The feeling you get when you are covered in sweat but had an awesome workout!

Friday, July 22, 2011

The title of this post is a shout out to Lady Gaga, but more importantly to my best friend coming in from out of town this weekend! She is in a wedding in Pittsburgh and I'm going to be her psuedodate! She gets in in less than an hour and I'm just itching to leave work to go and meet her! The one perk I've found about growing up and moving on is having friends who live other places to visit, but them getting to reconnect again because you don't get to see them as much as you used to.

In the great weight loss update, I opted to go to yoga yesterday instead of the class called "BodyAttack" (ya just use your imagination on that one folks and you'd probably be right!), and at my gym they have a bunch of yoga mats to use and I was in a hurry when I left my house so I figured it wouldn't be a problem if I didn't bring my own. OH was I WRONG! I honestly can't make these kinda of stories up so here it goes! BodyAttack happened before yoga and since yesterday Pittsburgh has a heat index of over 105 degrees and the room doesn't have AC you can imagine how hot, and more importantly sweaty, the people were coming out of the class before I went in for yoga. I picked up a yoga mat to use (forgetting the fact that the people before me used them) and right when I was stepping on to get into the first position I felt the feeling of a puddle of SOMEONE ELSE'S sweat under my feet as I stepped on. I almost vomited right there. I tried to pick up another mat, but they were all like that!! Therefore I spent the majority of my yoga class trying to tell the difference between my sweat and someone else's until I just gave up and focused on the 2 hour shower I would take when I would get home.

Cheers to the weekend everyone! I'll probably have a recap on Monday about my weekend, but I hope everyone has a fantastic one and keep cool!

Rant: When it's 100 degrees out and I see someone smoking a cigarette- I mean do what you gotta do, but aren't you just making yourself hotter?
Rave: My best friend will be here in half an hour!!! :-)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

So last night I went to the BodyJam class at my local gym. Can I just say that I was playing along with the whole dance class thing, until Whip your hair by Willow Smith came on. I immediately starting cracking up, but when I looked around not many other people seemed amused. I wanted to scream out, "Come on people!! We're getting ready to dance to a song sung by a 13 year old about getting whiplash from thrusting your hair all over the place!" The rest of the class went just as expected- my hips/butt/feet where shaking anywhere but the right place so I did what any hardworking BodyJam goer would do- stopped looking in the mirror! I'm posting a picture below of BodyJam's promotional picture and let me just say this is exactly how I looked yesterday! ;-)

Tonight I was going to try their BodyAttack class, but I'm reconsidering it since it's supposed to feel like 105 degrees outside and the room where the class is has no air conditioning making for some serious exhaustion on my part. I think I'm getting out of my little feeling sorry about my weight slump and just decided not to look at the scale for a while. I'm super excited for this weekend though because one of my best friends comes in from out of town and we're going to a wedding which is pretty much the most fun social event with free alcohol and dancing you can find! Can't wait to come to work tomorrow and just blast Rebecca Black's Friday in my head all day!

Rant: Why does it have to be sooooo hard to drag my butt to the gym??
Rave: The landlord of our dream home finally got back to us and it's looking like (cross your fingers) I have a place to live when my lease is up in a mere 8 days!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

So today I was talking to a coworker about facebook and she asked me how many friends I had. I didn't know the answer to this off the top of my head, but since I had been through college and everything, I guessed a couple hundred. To my surprise I had 782 friends!! 782! I was in shock over this and thought, "There is no reason I need that many friends on facebook, especially because that means 782 people can turn around and look at the things that I am posting!" It just plain creeped me out so I went on a de-friending spree! It was the weirdest thing to scroll through my friend list and see where people were in the world and what their profile pictures said about them. It will be interesting if any of these people turn around and try to friend me again because that would tell me how much they really look at my profile! Gosh Facebook really has a way of being scary sometimes!

In other news, my lease for my apartment ends in 10 days and the new house my roommates and I thought we had is still there, but the guy just won't get back to us. We've already seen the place and everything and want to move in, but every e-mail and phone call goes unanswered! Ughhhh..no matter what this is just stressing me out even on my best days. How am I supposed to pack up my life when I don't even know where I'm going? Well I'm headed out of work soon and tonight I'm trying the BodyJam class at my gym which is kind of like Zumba where you dance to popular hits. Should be interesting considering I have no rhythm!

PS. To find good of everyday (or at least try) I'm going to end each post with my Rant and Rave of the day!

Rant: No place to live in 10 daysRave: Got some AC pumpin in my apartment! (which is good because it says it's going to 'feel like' 105 tomorrow!)

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

So yesterday on my way to the gym I was stuck at a traffic light for 20 minutes because there was an accident ahead of me. When I finally got through that there was a random car show and there was NO parking. By the time I actually parked and got into the gym my class had already started and I couldn't get in. I was instantly pissed off because I hate missing a class. I had to go downstairs on the elliptical instead and my motivation to work is way less by myself compared to when I have someone in a class yelling to work hard. Add this to the fact that I weighed myself and was not happy. Not a good combo. But this was a big reason I started this blog- to receive support and motivation to keep myself honest and work hard towards my goals.

Another huge thing stressing me out these days is my relationship. I guess I haven't introduced this point yet, but I do have a boyfriend who I've been with for 5 years. It's an amazing relationship and we've been through so much that I couldn't imagine being with anyone else. Of course there has been plenty of rough times (I don't live in this imaginary fluffy rainbow-y world) but we have gotten through them together. Here's the kicker- he lives in Maryland. Don't worry, it's not like I met him online and we've been having this weird online relationship from different states for 5 years. I met him at the end of high school through mutual friends and we started dating. During college we went to different schools about an hour away so it was not that bad and we both still got to have our own experiences at school which I think is a big reason why we are so strong now. When he graduated with his masters in education to teach secondary math, jobs were slim. Education right now is so bad, especially in PA, and he was forced to go to Maryland to accept a job so that he could make an income. I totally supported him in this decision, but now that I have graduated, it has been really hard not to have him around. If I'm lucky, I get to see him about 2 times a month-it sucks. Even though this is a very downer of a post I'll post a picture of us to brighten up this page....Any words of wisdom out there for long distance relationships??

Monday, July 18, 2011

Hello all!
So today is Monday...ugh, isn't it just the worst! I think the better your weekend, the worse your monday. This weekend was very fun with beautiful weather! I saw Harry Potter on Friday. Now, for those of you who read the books religiously- what did you think? In my opinion, it was pretty different from the book in many ways. Don't get me wrong, as a movie it was EPIC, but they just left out/changed things that I felt didn't need to change. For example, where was Percy?? Or how about the battle between Harry and Voldemore? They didn't fly together around the castle and claw at each other's faces in the book! Potterwatch? Where was that? It didn't even show up in the first movie either so that was expected. They briefly mentioned Remus's kid and mentioned nothing about Harry raising him. I know I'm just being picky, but these are little things that made the book memorable to me. I was surfing the web a lot this weekend for comments on the movie and stumbled upon this awesome picture. I found it on a website that had the 20 Harry Potter Movie Sequels.It makes me laugh every time I look at it! (http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/20-harry-potter-movie-sequels)

In other weekend news, I got to go to my friend Dan's house for a party at his house complete with a pontoon boat, campfire, and fun! It was nice to get away from the city for awhile and enjoy the outdoors. I got to spend the next day at my parent's house and enjoy some quality time in their pool to get some sun since god knows I don't get any when I'm at work in my little cubicle. I don't even see a window from my desk! The one semi-comical thing that happened at home was that I was unplugging my stereo outside and discovered there's a wasp nest under the outlet, therefore a wasp bolted out of that suckers and got me right on my hand. I screamed loud enough to probably make the neighbors think I was getting attacked but that sucker hurt! My mind traveled back to the time when I was about 8 years old at a cookout playing with water balloons with all the kids there. There must have been a yellow jacket nest in the ground as we filled up the balloons with water and I guess I was the slowest one to run away because all the yellow jackets swarmed up from their nest and stung me in about 15 different places...No wonder I started to freak out when the wasp hit me on my hand! I instantly went into 5 year old mode as I ran into my house with tears streaming down my face yelling for my mom (because moms know how to make everything feel better, right?). As my mom googled what to do for a wasp sting (I thought moms knew everything?!) and I sat there crying my dad comforted me by saying, "There's no reason to cry!"....Thanks for the comfort Dad. After all the commotion, I survived with a swelled up hand and blood shot eyes.

As I mentioned before, home was going to be my first chance to have a "weigh-in" for a while. When I lost all of my weight a few years ago, I remember the moment I looked at the scale and saw a number under 200. Well because of a little thing called Senior year, that number is back up and it really got me down this weekend. It's hard for me to talk about this, but I feel like the more I put myself out there, the more I can own up to my goals and achieve them! Although I did loose about 3 lbs from July 4th to now, I still wasn't pleased. The new gym I joined gives you a free meeting with a personal trainer to set up some goals and my appointment is this week. Let's hope I can make the most of it.

Sorry for the long post- no access to a computer all weekend so had to smush everything in one! xoxo

Friday, July 15, 2011

Unless you're living under a rock, you know that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2 premiered last night at midnight. One downfall of being an "adult" and having a real job where you have to be up at 6am is that you can't go see a movie at midnight and expect to be functioning the next day. Because of this, I opted to buy tickets for the 7pm showing tonight. I'll be much more awake, but I'm at the edge of my seat waiting to see it! The first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was published in 1998 when I was 9 years old and now here I am at 22 and the journey is about to come to an end. I can't think of anything else in my life so far that I have followed and enjoyed for 13 years! Here's a picture of me in front of the Hogwarts Express!

I forgot to post yesterday because right after work I went out to dinner with my friend who I just graduated with to catch up and spice up our daily routines. We went to Houlihans and it was soooo delicious! You'll find my favorite drink below. It's their Georgia Peach Long Island Ice Tea! During their Happy Hour (5-7) they are only $3! It was really good to get out and do something different for a change, but I was a little disappointed that I will miss working out for 2 days in a row (since tonight is the Harry Potter movie and there's no way I'm missing that!)...I need to remember though that you need to give youself a break one in a while or you will just wear yourself out. I'll be going home this weekend where I will face the scale for the first time in a while. Hopefully it won't ruin my entire weekend and hopefully I find the motivation to keep going (any good tips out there anyone???)...Stay Tuned!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Last week I joined a gym because my logic was if I pay for it I will go (let's hope it stays that way). I joined mainly to take Les Mills classes where you work different parts of your body in different segments set to popular music. Check them out if you're looking for something different to keep your exercise attention. So anyway, I decided to take a different class yesterday called X-treme Step. In my head I said, "Well I've done a step class before so this shouldn't be that bad." Well I found out I was wrong. The word "X-treme" is in there for a reason. There was not one break throughout the 55 minute class and the entire time my feet were moving (for the most part).

I was completely off rhythm when the unthinkable happened....I watched with horror as a girl beside me tripped on her step and fell! I was even more terified when the instructor didn't even notice and kept going. For the rest of the class I found myself going slow so that I wasn't the next victim to fall to that mean step!

In other news, on my way home, I ran into one of my friends who I met in high school and went to college with me as well. I asked him what he was up to post-graduation and such and he told me he was traveling to Guatemala to teach math to 5th graders. I was super pumped that he was doing that, but then it made me think, "What the heck can I say I've done when I look back in 5 years." I haven't went abroad or taught underpriveleged children. In this time of my life I find it hard for me to make sure I'm living out some kind of "purpose." I've been happy lately because I've been getting to work actually awake and on time and then enjoying my gym time in the evenings before I go to bed and repeat.

Well I'm off to go home and enjoy my non airconditioned apartment! Only 2 more days until HARRY POTTER (yes, I'm a Harry Potter geek). Here's me with the HP Castle at Universal Studios!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hi everyone and welcome to my very FIRST blog I've ever attempted so bear with me! I decided to start this blog because I am going through a time of my life where everything is changing and I wanted to be in control of this blog to sort out everything and hopefully meet some of you bloggers out there who have some of the same experiences/problems as me.

I decided to title my blog after a quote in Peter Pan, "To live will be a great adventure." I picked this quote because Peter Pan is all about a boy who won't grow up and right now that's how I'm feeling. I just graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in Health Information Management. I was very fortunate and had a job within a month of graduating, but I miss college so much already and it's only been a couple months!

The next few days after graduation seemed like a continuation of school, but no one had to go to class; I was loving it! Then, people starting to leave, move away, get jobs, and leave our little college bubble to burst out into the real world. Suddenly, everything was changing by the day and I was freaking out! How was I going to function without all of my friends, especially my 3 roommates who I shared everything with for the past 2 years? Luckily I had some friends still with me in Pittsburgh and my family only lives an hour away and they were and always are very supportive of me!

Tacky picture from graduation, but I couldn't help myself! My roommate's dad is a professional photographer and snapped this picture- so precious! As I keep blogging I'll keep introducing you to more things me and take you through some of the problems I go through- losing weight, keeping it off, a long distance relationship, learning how to dress in the corporate world, keeping/losing touch with friends, MONEY (borrowing $70,000 for college seemed like such a good idea at the time), and everything else that comes up. Right now I'm just going to breathe and LIVE, because like the blog title says, it will be a GREAT adventure!

About Me

Hi everyone! My name is Lisa and I just recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh (Go Pitt!). I'm writing this blog to document my journey after college. No more staying up late to write that paper I forgot about or going out on a Thursday night singing "Benny and the Jets" with my best friends as the whole bar chimes in. I will continue to miss the times I had in college, but this blog is about the adventure that I'm beginning. The adventure of fitting in with a whole different professional crowd, getting fit and losing that "freshmen 15" that I kept on all 4 years, and dealing with the transition of being an "adult" (or at least pretending to be).